a last conversation that we know of between merkel and prudent -- merkel and putin was yesterday. it is so hard to tell what's going on on the ground right now. there is a helicopter that was shut down -- shot down. it is a question of how much can obama push merkel for additional sanctions. -- merkel and putin speaking on the phone every 10 days. >> there was just this time in june of last year that obama visited here and gave a speech and he and merkel had quite a bit of time there. and ukraine not happened, this would have been an ugly visit because merkel would have complained about edward snowden and to the nsa and all the eavesdroppings. a lot of that has been brushed aside and the focus will be on ukraine. alan krueger is much more qualified than i am to talk about the overall benefits of the trade agreement. this is all about ukraine. berlin was busy morning. we will get a report on the american labor economy. a wealth of information on those employed and the long-term unemployed. alan krueger is one of the nations were most labor economists. he has recently served as the